Haiti and a Hazelnut Latte

So here I sit in my local Starbucks, already more privileged than half the world to be doing so – what with Haitians starving and wondering where their next meal will come from, and me sitting in a well-lit, laughter-surrounded setting with a hot drink on the coffee table next to me, able at a moment’s notice to pack it all up and drive safely to my warm home for a meal of whatever I want, because I have so many things to choose from.

It’s called “survivor’s guilt.” Why them and not me? Why was I spared? I know a man who thinks he knows. In the case of the Haitians, he claims it was because they made a pact with the devil. But I think the bigger point is found in Luke 13, which shows us that these things don’t just happen because some people are worse sinners than others. It’s a reminder that we need to get our own houses in order — that we need to remember our own mortality, repent of our sins, and turn to our Maker, against Whom we are at war.

Frankly, we all made a pact with the devil through our common father, Adam. Death is our lot, and a double death at that (physical and spiritual), were it not for the great hesed — the unfathomable compassion — of our Creator God.

What is my purpose? Is it to continually bring before the face of the homosexual community the message that God hates them and they’re damned to eternity in a sinner’s hell? Is it to curse the broken and confused woman who ends the life of her child before it breathes its first breath? Is it even to pour venom on those who enable that poor woman to make that life-ending choice?

Heaven forbid.

Even the angry messages of destruction God sent the Israelites through His prophets were laced with a silver lining, a light of hope. Nothing I write should be devoid of such a light — never so horrific a darkness that murders hope and gives life to utter despair.

Does God hate homosexual behavior? Scripture clearly shows that He does. Does He hate the wanton murder of children in the womb for our own convenience? Again, clearly the answer is, “yes.” But does God view the hatred of our brother as the same thing as murder? Uncomfortably so. And is the lustful look of the eye upon the beautiful woman who just walked by tantamount to full-on adultery in the sight of God? Maddeningly so.

Am I ever in the position to judge another human being? Or better put, could you trust a serial killer to judge a murder trial? Clearly not.

God forgives. Without question. Without hesitation. With wild abandon. … And so should I. And so will I.

Does this preclude me from speaking out against sin? No. Never. But what it does mean is that anything I say should always be run through the filter of an ever-loving, ever-forgiving God, who loves the person I’m speaking to — and against — infinitely more than I ever could.

I seek to save my nation. But what I’m learning of God is that He would abandon it in order to save the person I view as my opponent in this political theater of the absurd.

God sacrificed His only Son to save me. What would I sacrifice to save others?

Out of the calm and into the wild,Beyond the boundaries, where comfort fades,Leaving the man, I become the child,Remove my armor, and drop my blades.

Into the darkened waking world,A nightmare faced with open eyes,I sail my ship with flag unfurled,Amidst the deep of mournful cries.

Who they are and where they may be,I do not know, but journey still,To where this wind blows on the sea,For where I go is where You will.